February 20, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) – Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), today issued the statement below responding to the reported firing of thousands of federal employees at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Beyer serves on the House Ways and Means Tax Subcommittee, and represents a Northern Virginia district containing one of the largest concentrations of federal employees in the U.S. House.

Beyer released resources for federal employees last week. He also highlighted a recent hearing exchange in which a tax law expert testified that unauthorized access of sharing of taxpayers’ personal information held by the IRS could be a crime punishable by up to five years in prison, with a statute of limitations that could run past the Trump presidency.

Beyer said:

“Purging thousands of IRS workers in the middle of tax filing season is another act of plain corruption designed to benefit Musk, Trump, and their wealthy friends.

“These firings appear to particularly target tax enforcement on the wealthy, which will make it easier for tax cheats to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. This will cost the government billions of dollars in lost revenue, while making our tax enforcement less fair and weakening customer service for the American people. Musk and Trump clearly have no interest in reform or deficit reduction, they just want to break the government so that no one can stop them from gaining more wealth and power.

“It should be lost on no one that Musk and Trump are gutting the IRS in the middle of tax filing season. As Musk unleashes his unvetted cronies on Americans’ private personal information and meddles with IT systems he doesn’t understand, he risks plunging our tax system into chaos.

“These and tens of thousands more conscientious civil servants who have been fired are being punished simply for doing their jobs and serving the country. These firings are likely illegal, and make the federal government less responsive to the American people. This is stupid, destructive, and corrupt.”

###